Superintendent: Schools need a $5M budget hike
SHELTON — School administration has proposed a nearly $5 million hike in the education budget for the coming fiscal year.
Superintendent Ken Saranich said the 6.23 percent hike, from the current $77.2 million to the proposed $82 million, includes required contractual increases, money for staff and instructional materials that had been covered by COVID relief grants, and funds for special education.
Saranich presented the administration’s budget number to the Board of Education Feb. 1. The board will be deliberating on a final 2024-25 education budget proposal this Thursday at 6 p.m. at the BOE offices. Once approved, the school budget proposal goes to Mayor Mark Lauretti as he prepares the overall city budget for the next fiscal year.
Last year, Lauretti budgeted $77.2 million for education, a $2.5 million increase from the 2022-23 fiscal year’s budget, but less than half of the $5.3 million hike the school board had sought. The Board of Aldermen last year approved a $131.6 million budget that kept the mill rate at 17.47 mills.
“Everything we have developed here is done so with the best interest of the students ... to give every student the education they deserve,” Saranich said. “But that comes with a cost.”
The total special education budget proposal for next fiscal year, presented to the Board of Education by Special Education Director Tracy Hussey, stands at nearly $1.5 million, made up largely by tuition and transportation costs.
But the district is also proposing funds for the continued expansion of the newly accredited pre-K program and a partnership with Region 9 on a college transitional program. There is also a new line item focused on transforming a modular at Perry Hill School into an alternative high school program.
For the pre-K program, the district is seeking $169,000. That will allow for the hiring of a full-time special education teacher with a background working with students with autism, two paraprofessionals and a .5 school psychologist. The pre-K program is free for those needing special assistance and their typical peers.
The district is also seeking $75,000 to begin participation in the Quinnipiac Collaborative with Region 9. This program, Saranich said, would be for individuals between 18 and 22 deemed to need a college transitional program.
Saranich said this is mainly a work readiness opportunity. Current costs are some $210,000 for college-based transition programming. In 2024-25, by
The Shelton Board of Education offices. School administration has proposed a nearly $5 million hike in the education budget for the coming fiscal year.
using the collaborative program with Region 9, the city would save at least $125,000 if not more, according to Hussey.
The major project is transitioning the modular, long an unused fixture at Perry Hill School, into an alternative learning center.
Saranich said the city has already received grant money that would help update the security requirements for this dated building. There would also need to be some $30,000 worth of one-time capital upgrades, which Saranich said he would ask the city
to cover.
There is $270,500 recommended for the 2024-25 school budget to cover needed staffing for the new center, Saranich said. In all, the district would need at least seven full-time staffers for this center, including a paraprofessional, and five teachers.
Saranich said there are about a dozen students in the district who would be placed in this center, at a savings of some $544,000. That is the amount, he said, used for outplacement tuition for those students.
The modular has four classrooms, an office and restroom facilities. Saranich said at least 12 students could be in each classroom, meaning that once this center is established, it could act as a revenue generator if space remains after all appropriate Shelton students are in place.
Saranich said the center would operate on a shortened daily schedule, which he says would allow for the teachers to perform tutoring for students, including those who have been expelled. He said that the district would save $16,000 by
using staff for tutoring instead of outsourcing as is done now.
The district is also looking to hire a part-time teacher with experience dealing with hearing impaired. Saranich said this hire would save the district some $80,000, which is the cost of outsourcing for this service.
“The reality is we will do what is required to sustain the district,” Saranich said. “We will talk about ways to make cuts if necessary and still maintain services and do the best for Shelton’s students.”